Registered Design Numbers

The following metalware information was formerly available on the Oxton
Decorative Arts web site:

The dating of British designs during the Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau and Art
Deco periods is often assisted by the use of Registered Design Numbers.
This was a system which came into being in 1842 and started to decline in the
early 1930s. It enabled manufacturers, retailers or designers to register
their designs, so that they could not be copied. It was therefore like a
cross between a patent and a copyright. Many designs were registered by
the manufacturers or retailers rather than the designers, so it is not often
possible to identify designers on the basis of Registered Design numbers alone.

Two systems operated―the first used a
lozenge shape with letters and numbers at each corner to signify the date or
registration―the abbreviation Rd appeared at
the center. The letter at the top corner identifies the year. This
system ran until 1883, when it was replaced by a series of sequential numbers
preceded by Rd, which can be banded into years for dating purposes. For
example, Rd 291330 dates a design to 1897. For most years there are
overlaps in the sequences of numbers. Details of the registered designs
were included in the official journal of Patents, of which there were one or
more volumes per year.